Spirit of the Forest
by Grovylelover
Summary: After becoming lost in the woods, a boy is transformed into a phantump and now must journey through the forest in the body of a pokemon with the help of various different pokemon along the way, will he be able to find out how to return to his former self? Rated T to be safe
1. Prolouge

Spirit of the Forest

 _Drip_

 _Drip_

 _Rumble_

 _Drip_

The rain splattered onto the ground in sheets. Grey sneakers splashed through the ever growing puddles as another bolt of lightning lit up the trees and the sky growled once more. They boy stopped for a second, panting as rain dripped down his short brown hair.

He had come into the forest to explore hours ago, but hadn't been able to leave. He didn't know why; he didn't know how, but for some mysterious reason, the forest went on forever, an endless green and brown maze that trapped him in. He had backtracked many times but… it was almost like the trees moved. He was _sure_ it had to be the doing of a Pokémon, although for whatever reason, he simply couldn't imagine.

His thoughts were interrupted as the sky snarled again, heralding another flash of lightning which spurred him to continue moving on. His T-shirt and shorts were both soaked, and he felt chilled to the bone, but he couldn't stay underneath a tree. Not only could it be hit by lightning, but it just felt… wrong, as if the trees were judging him. He swore one of the shifted once when he had put his hand on its trunk to steady himself. But without any other notion of how to survive, he had to keep moving. And so he did. And just when he was about to stop to catch his breath, a silhouette caught his eye.

Creeping closer, he found a small shack; it looked about one room big, tucked into the trees. For a second he considered the possibilities of it being some sort of horrible trap, but he didn't have much of an option, as he'd freeze to death if he stayed out in the rain any longer. Approaching the doorless entrance hole, he noted that it wasn't the sturdiest, but the rain didn't seem to be leaking in and apart from the couple feet near the entrance, it seemed fairly dry. Immediately after that he noticed the source of the thin glow that kept the shack from being pitch black, allowing him to notice its features. There in the center of the floor was a small flickering candle.

His first thought was to how it got there. Was it really some sort of trap? But… then again, that would be kind of stupid. There was clearly no one else in the cabin, and who would wait outside for hours in that storm waiting for someone? Heck, they wouldn't be expecting someone anyways; after all, no one in their right mind would stay outside in this weather. Well, there was him, but he didn't exactly choose to be here. The other part of his mind wondered how the candle was still lit, but after pondering for a couple seconds, he passed it up to luck. After all, the cabin _was_ fairly dry, so it wouldn't be that much of a stretch.

Eventually deciding to abandon his misgivings for the promise of warmth, no matter how small, he walked over and sat next to the small candle. At this action the candle wavered, and he held his breath, hoping his movements had not somehow endangered the flame, but the flame returned to its normal strong and flickering form after a few seconds. He exhaled away from the flame. Thank goodness. Rubbing his hands together for some extra warmth, he placed his palms a few inches away from the fire, relishing the warmth that pulsed off of the fire. After a few minutes his eyes began to droop.

"Wow." He laughed quietly. "I must have tired myself out a lot. I never start sleeping this quickly."

As he half struggled to keep his eyes open, he noticed the candle flame looked bigger than before. Or not. His eyes were so blurry that everything looked slightly smudged.

' _Whatever_ ,' he thought to himself, _'I'll get out of here in the morning-'_ but as his eyelids fell, the flame only got bigger and bigger.

And despite the fires usual intention of keeping warm, the boy's body just got colder and colder as the flames rose higher...


	2. Chapter 1

**Sorry if this took a while to upload. My goal is to have a chapter uploaded every other week, so i'll try my best to keep that reliable. Big shout out to Mangledfox33 on Tumblr for helping me edit this, and thank you so much to the people who have read it. I really didn't expect so many people to enjoy it, so it makes me happy that you guys are reading it! Please give the story a review about what you thought was good, bad, and your thoughts so far so I can improve the story as much as possible. Once again thanks so much for reading!**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter 1

It was cold; the boy had never been that freezing before, but… it felt strange in a way. Different from icy feeling you grow used to, this was something new entirely, although he couldn't quite put his finger on how. Groaning quietly, he squinted his eyes open for a second, hoping to grasp what situation he was in, but squeezed them shut immediately from the unfamiliar brightness that filtered through the doorway. He paused for a second, trying to recall the events of the night before. His memory was foggy, but bit by bit he pieced together what happened.

' _That's right!_ ' He realized, _'I have to get out of the forest!'_

Forgetting that the light of day had penetrated the leaves, his eyes shot open, only to be met with a burning orange glow

"AARGH!" He hissed, his pupils dilating wildly to adjust to the sudden increase in light.

Waiting a few moments to open his eyes again so they could readjust to the glare, he slowly began to pull himself to his feet. He felt a bit wobbly, but managed to stand in the end.

"Is everything… bigger?"

He blinked. It certainly wasn't his imagination. The doorway that had only been a few feet taller last night was suddenly ten times his size, and the small shack was much more spacious. While trying to decipher what had happened, he finally took notice that the candle from the night before was no longer visible. There wasn't even a pile of wax to signify its remains. It had just… vanished. Yet another mystery to solve, although the change in size definitely took priority. He decided to leave the shack. There was nothing there, and the storm had stopped, so it would be much easier to get home. As strange as it was, the growing shack could wait until he was safe and out of the forest. Determined, he stepped forward.

"Woah"

That was _definitely_ weird. The second he willed his legs to move, he moved, but not in the normal way. It was almost like he _drifted_ forewords or something. He hadn't even felt the familiar jolt from his legs when they touched the ground. In fact, thinking about it now, he couldn't feel the ground at all. Bit and pieces of theories and ideas began to form in his mind, trying to make sense of it all. But he had a vague feeling in the back of his mind, that he knew _exactly_ what happened. Although he was afraid of what he would find, the boy took a deep breath and looked at his feet. Or what used to be his feet. His breathing began to escalate quickly as his fears were confirmed. He no longer had feet. Or legs for that matter. And he was right. When he 'stepped' forwards, he didn't step at all. His wispy black body glided where he wanted to go, trailing a flickering trail behind it.

"Noooo nonononono"

His breathing was hitched and his eyes were wide as he racked his brain trying to think of something, ANYTHING that could make the situation better.

"Alright. Okay. I just have to-hmmm-ugh. Okay. Calm down. I need to know what the rest of me looks like."

Slowly drifting forewords, now uncomfortably aware of his lack of lower limbs, he made his way to the doorway.

"I guess this explains why it's so much bigger than before." He realized, looking up at the wide frame. He closed his eyes for a second, still confused and nervous about his situation, and drifted outside.

It was hard to tell the exact time, as the sun wasn't fully visible through the thick foliage, but it seemed to be sometime in the morning. Calm yellow filtered through the leaves, scattering shadows in a blotched pattern. A few of the trees still had water dripping off their branches from the onslaught of rain in last night's storm. He floated over to one of the trees that was a few feet away from the shack and lowered his head to look into the puddle that had formed next to the trunk. His eyes widened at what he saw, and he attempted to grab his face, as if to make sure that his reflection was not just his worried mind playing tricks on him. But his hands stopped short, and his newly stubby arms could barely reach his chin.

"I-I'm a stump!"

No that couldn't be right. His head may have been transformed into some strange, wooden, tree stump mask thing, but the rest of his body was black and smoky. He still had eyes, but they were pale red, instead of his usual warm brown. And of course, he was MUCH smaller than before. He furrowed his brows (or whatever weird ghost-stump equivalent he now possessed), and tried to think of what he had become. It was some kind of pokemon, he was sure. They had talked about it before in class. He racked his forgetful brain for a minute or two before remembering.

"Phantump! That's what it's called! But… why I am I a phantump? Hmmmmm, what did we learn about phantump?"

He tried for a few more minutes to try to remember any potentially helpful details, with no luck, before he heard the snapping of branches and crinkling of leaves behind him.

"WHO'S THERE!"

He yelped, surprised by the sudden sound. At his exclamation, a small white head peeked around the side of the hut.

"Oh I'm sorry did I startle you?" A slightly high pitched yet smooth voice called out.

"I had no idea that you had already woken up."

Upon further inspection, he found out that the head belonged to a white candle like pokemon, 'litwick' he recalled after a few seconds. Normally he would be wondering how he was able to understand a pokemon, but he had come to the conclusion that since he himself was a pokemon, it would only be natural that he could speak their language. He was about to ask who she was and how she knew him, before he stopped himself, suddenly realizing that she must be the candle from last night that he had been unable to find. That being said, maybe she knew why he had transformed into a phantump!

"Hi. I, uh, just woke up and-"

"Of course," she interrupted, "you must be so confused. Come inside for a moment and I will explain everything."

He was a bit startled at her confidence, but still very glad that she had the answers he needed, so he followed her back into the shed.

"Poor friend, you must not remember a thing," she spoke in her strange yet kindly voice.

"Oh well actually I-"

"We were sharing a picnic together, me, you, and a few others, when some humans interrupted it. We ran to hide, but I'm afraid you still took the full brunt of an attack. I teleported you here to let you rest and recover, but noticed that you had received head trauma, and would most likely have lost your memory. You've been Unconscious for days. I'm glad you're alright."

The boy narrowed his eyes. She was lying to him. Why? Something weird was happening and he couldn't quite put his finger on it. But as he was trying to figure out how to confront her lies, his memory finally proved useful.

' _Phantump: According to old tales, these Pokémon are stumps possessed by the spirits of children who died while lost in the forest.'_

As the memory rose to the surface of his mind he froze.

' _But… I can't be dead. Nothing killed me! And I'm sure I can't have been a trap, that would have been ridiculous! But than-?'_ His thought process was cut off as he remembered the lesson on litwick.

"Litwick shines a light that absorbs the life energy of people and Pokémon, which becomes the fuel that it burns.

While shining a light and pretending to be a guide, it leeches off the life force of any who follow it."

At that thought he looked at the tiny candle pokemon in horror. Why did she kill him? What was she trying to accomplish?

"Why did you kill me?" He whispered, suddenly terrified of what she could do. Her eyes widened for a second.

"I just told you, you didn't die, you were injured by humans!"

Summoning up all his courage in an attempt to learn the truth, he put on his most dangerous looking face and sternly approached her.

"You're lying. That's not what happened at all. YOU killed me. You sucked out my life force!"

He wasn't entirely sure what he expected to happen, but regardless, chills went down his spine as her previously gentle face turned cold and suspicious in an instant.

"You're not supposed to remember that. How do you remember?"

Her voice, though still the same, was suddenly much more threatening and cold. She began to slowly advance toward him, causing him to scoot backwards and trip, abandoning the little courage he had summed up. For such a small pokemon, she was actually pretty scary.

"I-I don't know! What do you mean not supposed to remember!?"

She hesitated.

"I was not prepared for this scenario. You were supposed to forget your past and join us."

"Why?! Are you evil? Is that why you killed me!?"

"Evil?" At that she stepped back, looking almost furious.

"How dare you, a _human,_ call us evil!"

"What's that even supposed to mean?!"

He was now both equally scared and confused, although his curiosity convinced him. He took a deep breath.

"Look. I just wanna figure out how gonna human again. If you can do that I'll never come into the forest again okay?"

Her single visible eye narrowed, thinking about the advantages and disadvantages of the proposition. After thinking it over for a few minutes she sighed in defeat and looked at him.

"I have no idea how to make you human again, nor do I particularly care as long as you leave this forest and never speak of the events here. However, I do know someone who can help you find out."


End file.
